A MAN who was accused of entering a woman's home and raping her as she slept was cleared by a jury yesterday.

Steven George Mason, 28, was found not guilty of raping the 34-year-old woman at Teesside Crown Court.

A formal not guilty verdict was entered on a second charge of trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence after Christine Egerton, prosecuting, said the Crown would be offering no evidence.

Judge George Moorhouse said the defendant could leave the dock and thanked the jury.

The prosecution had alleged that Mr Mason had entered the woman's Hartlepool home through an unlocked door in the early hours of May 7 and then raped her as she slept downstairs on a sofa.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claimed she first thought that, in the darkness, the man having sex with her was her partner.

In his defence, Mr Mason, whose last permanent address was at Windermere Road, Hartlepool, said he was simply walking past the woman's home, having been drinking in town, when he struck up a conversation with her.

He chatted to the woman and then followed her inside the house before the pair had consensual sex.

He had said the woman was "up for" sex and gave no indication that she wanted to stop.

His barrister, Ian West, said the complainant was drunk by her own admission, having consumed alcohol and cannabis earlier in the evening, and suggested she had initiated the unprotected sex after a row with her partner.

Mr Mason, who had been living in a bail hostel in South Bank, Middlesbrough, was attacked by the woman's partner following the incident and was forced to seek refuge by running into a nearby house.

He received facial injuries and was left with a swollen eye and cut lip, the court heard.